It started out as just one of those typical business conversations that changed to a conversation about marketing.
“How’s business?”
“Business has been slow in my industry lately. I am concerned that we are not seeing new customers and existing customers aren’t buying much from us although some of them I talk to say they are busy right now.”
“Hmm, are you still getting the word out about your products?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what type of marketing have you been doing in the past few months or over the year?”
“Well, we have a business open house twice a year which include demonstrations by the manufacturers of the products we sell. We send out postcards on that to our customers. We tell them about new products when they come in to buy from us. I have my guys make sure they hand out to the customers the fliers on specials when they come in. We’re really proud that we have built a relationship with the customer and they refer others to us.”
“Have you tried sending out mailings, e-mails, and faxing?”
“No we don’t need to do that because once they find out about us they come back. Again it’s our relationship building we work on when they come in that we feel encourages them to come back. Mailing cost too much money. We don’t have time to fax during the day and I don’t want to fax to small businesses at night because many of them have home offices. I don’t really think e-mail works because I get a lot of junk mail every day!”
“Who competes with you?”
“Well, we have other distributors in the area even with-in 15 miles of us. We also compete agoinst the big retail stores. Still we give better service than they do. Hey, great catching up with you I have to get back to the office.”

We run into this all the time. Does this sound familiar?

Many business owners feel that if they just give the customer attention and good service everything will fall into place. As I recently heard someone say to me they wait for a “Miracle to Happen”.

Now don’t get me wrong building customer relationships is very important in any business. It’s just not after the first sale that you begin to do it. To continue to grow your business you need to have a marketing plan that builds a relationship with the prospect before they buy from you.

• Like sending out mailings to tell them about you, your products and services and include testimonials.

• Include an offer for them to sign up on your website for a free tips book or a series of monthly tips by e-mail. Just remember to include something personal about yourself and staff.

• The prospect gets to learn and understand how you do business. It will make them feel more comfortable coming in the first time to check out your products and services.

• Now once they buy from you make them feel special with exclusive offers and discounts to keep them returning to your business. Use e-mail to send out exclusive customer announcements.

• Maybe have a customer loyalty program where after they buy a certain amount they get 10% off the next purchase. Offer to have drawings for tickets to local sports team events.

We will explore the areas I’ve mentioned in future blog posts. For now start thinking about how you can draw new customers to your business and maintain repeat business as well.

Remember marketing brings in customers so you can build a relationship.

If you would like to learn more about our marketing and sales automation and how it can work for you call us at 508-226-4565.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Business, Customer Relationship, Marketing, Sales, Sales Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.